Two finals, two losses for Singapore’s badminton players in Vietnam Open

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s campaign at the Vietnam Open ended in heartbreak on Sept 13, as both singles player Jason Teh and the men’s doubles duo of Terry Hee and Howin Wong stumbled in their respective finals.

Teh, who was looking to secure just his third title on the Badminton World Federation World Tour, was defeated in straight sets by Malaysia’s 91st-ranked Aidil Sholeh. At the Nguyen Du Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, the 26-year-old suffered a 21-16, 21-14 loss.

Teh said after the loss: “I think my opponent played a good game today, I couldn’t keep up with his attack. I could have done better in terms of my defence.”

The US$120,000 (S$152,000) Vietnam Open is a Super 100 event that is on the lower tier of the World Tour.

In the earlier rounds, world No. 33 Teh beat India’s Manraj Singh (113rd), China’s Wang Zijun (173rd) and Korea Masters champion Zhu Xuanchen (47th), before overcoming India’s H. S. Prannoy (40th) in the semi-finals.

Despite reaching the final, Teh added that he was “not satisfied because I really wanted to win”.

He said: “I just need more training because I have been dealing with injuries. Up next will be the Europe tour. I hope I can perform better for my upcoming tournaments.”

Teh enjoyed a breakthrough 2025 season that saw him win the Thailand Masters and Korea Masters for his first two titles on the BWF World Tour during a period where he also reached a career-high world No. 19.

But 2026 has proven to be a challenge.

Before his run to the Vietnam Open final, he won just 11 out of 30 matches and suffered nine first-round exits in 15 World Tour events in 2026, falling out of the top 30 and missing out on the Sept 19-Oct 4 Asian Games.

His only title came in March, in the Polish Open which is an International Challenge event below the World Tour.

In the earlier women’s singles final, Sarunrak Vitidsarn of Thailand defeated India’s Isharani Baruah 21-8, 21-15 in 34 minutes.

In the men’s doubles final, Hee and Wong were also beaten in straight games, as 32nd-ranked Taiwanese pair Chen Zhi-ray and Lin Yu-chieh won 21-14, 21-12 to clinch the title.

This was only the third tournament for the Singaporean pair since teaming up. Although they took a 14-10 lead in the opening game, their opponents reeled off 11 consecutive points to win 21-14.

Reflecting on the match, Wong, 25, said: “Our start was good until the middle of the game, where they changed strategy and we lost quite a bit of points. We’ll have to learn how to readjust our strategy quickly moving forward.

“Playing alongside an experienced senior like Terry has been a great learning curve for me. Making a final early on shows that our dynamic works, but it also gives us a clear look at what top-level execution requires. We’re definitely hungry for more. We’ll work on it and come back stronger.”

Hee, who has had several on-court partners in the last two years, said that the pair had managed their games well throughout the week, and that it “gives us solid momentum to build on.”

The 31-year-old added: “Reaching a final this early into a partnership is a huge confidence booster and proves that our chemistry on court is forming quickly. We’ll be taking it step by step – analyse our matches from this tournament with our coach, work on our teamwork, consistency and court rotation.”

In March, his partnership with Indonesian Gloria Widjaja came to an end.

Hee reached a career-high ranking of 22nd with Loh Kean Hean before he decided to focus on Paris 2024 Olympic qualification with his wife Jessica Tan.

With Tan, the pair claimed three World Tour titles and a historic gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. They were the first local-born mixed doubles pair to qualify for the Olympics, winning one match and losing twice at Paris 2024 to miss out on the quarter-finals.

Tan retired from competitive sport in 2025 to pursue a degree in sport management at the University of Bath.

Hee also had a stint partnering national teammates Jin Yujia and Wesley Koh before teaming up with Wong.

Deepanraj Ganesan is a sports correspondent at The Straits Times focusing on football, athletics, combat sports and policy-related news.